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New Day

Possible Mail Bombs Sent to Former Vice President Joe Biden and to Robert De Niro's Film Production Company; Interview with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired October 25, 2018 - 8:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[08:00:05] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. We are following a lot of breaking news this morning, including just now in the past few moments we have confirmed that authorities believe they have found the ninth suspicious package. This one in Delaware. This one addressed to former vice president Joe Biden. The one you are seeing on the right side of your screen right now was found this morning, just a couple of hours ago in Tribeca, New York City. It was addressed to the actor Robert De Niro. It went to his production company here in New York at about 4:30 a.m. we understand. The police got the first calls from two eagle eyed security guards who saw a package that fit the same description of the packages that we saw yesterday, those seven. They called the police, and that is the containment vehicle that they then put that bomb that they found, or at least the ingredients for the bomb, in there to begin investigating it.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So what does this mean? It means there is a would be serial bomber on the loose. Someone who has sent now, we believe, nine bombs to political targets. All the targets are on the screen right in front of you, including former President Obama, the Clintons home, former Attorney General Eric Holder, member of Congress Maxine Waters, former CIA Director John Brennan, that was sent right here to CNN, and the actor Robert De Niro. And now we believe something sent to former vice president Joe Biden in Delaware, was trying to be confirmed about whether or not that is a bomb. But something has been recovered that was sent to him.

All people that the president has been critical of. All people who have also been critical of the president. There are all sorts of new threats in the investigation this morning in the ongoing developments. We're going to start in bringing in Shimon Prokupecz and Jim Sciutto, who have been with us here all morning, reporting this as it happens. What have you guys learned?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: So the ninth package, it is not clear if that's what's going on in Delaware. We are also getting word that the authorities may have intercepted or found this Biden package last night. There were some similarities we were told yesterday, which is why authorities had been looking for it, specifically the return address as we are seeing in a lot of these packages.

Now, as to the one here this morning in New York, obviously, we have now seen what that packaging looks like. Very similar. Obviously the same person it appears that sent this. What I'm also told is that it was really the media reports is what helped security at the Tribeca production company. It was a retired police officer who noticed this package, had seen the media reports last night, and said, oh, my God, this is the same thing, and notified the police. So the public outreach by law enforcement, by the FBI, certainly is helping in this investigation in keeping people alert.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: And that's why the FBI and New York Police Department share photos like the ones we have on the screen there, so that other organizations and individuals if they see something like this, the first reaction is to call the authorities, as happened in the CNN mailroom yesterday, as happened in De Niro's offices today.

The consistent message I get from both local law enforcement and federal authorities is they are still keeping their eyes open for other packages. They were telling us that yesterday, more packages came. They told us that this morning, more packages have since come. And that is their footing right now.

And the final thing I will just say is this, the package is the same on the exterior. It appears the devices are similar to identical on the interior. And the targets are similar as well, right, because they all fall into a category of people the president has criticized or have criticized the president. And that goes to the M.O. of the attacker or the attackers.

BERMAN: You're looking again on the csreen right there, that is a package sent to Robert De Niro recovered this morning. Exactly the same really in detail as the ones that were delivered yesterday. Shimon and Jim, we're going to let you get back to reporting, especially focused on this new device we believed has been recovered sent to Vice President Biden over the next few minutes.

CAMEROTA: I'm going to bring in now New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Mr. Mayor, thank you very much. I know it is a very busy morning for you. Tell us what happened this morning around Robert De Niro's office.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, (D) NEW YORK: Alisyn, first I want to say thank you to you and everyone at CNN, because you were under attack yesterday, but you kept the news coming to the people of this country. And I saw extraordinary professionalism and fortitude in the face of what you all were doing. I want to thank you for that.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much for saying that. We did not skip a beat. It was very, I must say, heartening to know that the news will go on regardless of a scare. We did not skip a beat here.

DE BLASIO: And I think that's the bigger point of what's happening here. We'll talk about specifics, but we need to recognize someone is trying to some group of people are trying to terrorize us, trying to get us to lose faith in our government, in and institutions, in our society. We have to respond with consistency and not allowing ourselves to be undermined. Terrorism by definition is an effort to change people's way of living and way of thinking using violence, using terror. We can't let that happen.

[08:05:11] CAMEROTA: And just very quickly, this is not just institutions. There is a very clear pattern of who is being targeted.

DE BLASIO: Yes.

CAMEROTA: With these. So these are all people who the president has recently criticized, all organizations or direct people who the president at rallies or speeches has gone after, and some of whom have criticized the president. It's that part should be very clear for investigators to figure out in terms of the targets.

DE BLASIO: That's right. And we see an extraordinarily clear pattern. And I want to emphasize, I believe -- it may take days, it may take weeks, but I believe that law enforcement will find this individual or individuals, that there perpetrators will be brought to justice. We have seen it many times before. It sometimes takes a while, but they will be found.

But what we have to recognize is we should expect more of these in the meantime. So, yes, this morning Robert De Niro's office. Thank God, because of an eagle-eyed security employer, no one was hurt. The device was removed successfully by the NYPD. But this is another crucial point. Everyone has an opportunity, even though this is a painful moment and something we should not be living through, and something that's been unfortunately facilitated by an atmosphere of hatred that's been created by some of our leaders, every day people can be part of the solution here.

We need to be vigilant. We need to recognize that anything suspicious, don't explain it away, don't think maybe it is not a big deal. If you think a package is suspicious, call the authorities immediately. Protect yourself, protect everyone around you by being vigilant. That also could be part of how we find the perpetrators. That information from the grassroots, time and time again, that's what allows law enforcement to hopefully win the day.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. There is nothing more powerful than all the eyeballs that are watching us right now. And here's the number. It's super easy to remember, 1-800-call-FBI, 1-800-call-FBI if you see anything that resembles these packages or seems suspicious. Mayor, has the New York Police Department told you that they're aware of other packages or looking for other packages or have heard of other packages.

DE BLASIO: There is nothing beyond what happened this morning with Robert De Niro's office. But we are ready to deal with more. Clearly there is a pattern. It does appear to be very consistent. Each of these packages coming from the exact same person or people with the exact same style, the exact same materials. We have every reason to believe there might be some more, and we have to be ready for that. But I think that's part of what's important here is for people to

recognize, if, god forbid, there is more, it does not change our response. Our response has to be the same. The news has to keep being given. People in public life have to keep representing our constituents. We cannot be thrown off our game. By the way, you saw New Yorkers yesterday. And this is not the first time we have suffered a terror attack. New Yorkers said, no way we're going to be intimidated, and they kept going about their business. And I said yesterday, the terrorists, whoever tried to do this, mission not accomplished. They did not change people's lives or values through violence.

CAMEROTA: Do you believe there is this morning a serial bomber loose in New York City?

DE BLASIO: I don't know they're in New York City. I believe there is someone who by definition is a serial bomber, yes, and a terrorist. Person or people, foreign or domestic, we don't know yet. And we certainly don't know if they're here or elsewhere in the country.

CAMEROTA: Do you know if the package to Robert De Niro was hand delivered?

DE BLASIO: We don't. and I don't want to rule out that it would be a combination of either in certain cases hand delivered, certain cases through the postal service. That's what the investigation has to make sense of. Bu the bottom line is since we don't know where the perpetrator is, we don't know where the origin is, what we do know is people can stop and so far have very successfully stopped anyone from being harmed because everyone took these package seriously.

CAMEROTA: Is your office or the NYPD alerting other people who might be on this target list?

DE BLASIO: What we've done is put additional NYPD presence in front of team media, companies around New York City, in front of the offices of certain elected officials, and we have alerted everyone broadly that there has to be extra vigilance at this point. Every package needs to be looked at carefully. Anything that seems out of the ordinary, anything suspicious look, suspicious smell, anything that seems like a chemical agent, anything that might pose danger, don't open that package. Immediately call the authorities.

CAMEROTA: The president put out a statement this morning on Twitter. He says "A very big part of the anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposefully false and inaccurate reporting of the mainstream media that I refer to as fake news. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream media must clean up its act fast." Do you understand why that would be his message this morning?

DE BLASIO: I do, because unfortunately, and I have been very critical of the president on this point, he has created an atmosphere of hatred and division in this country, but it is not new for Donald Trump.

[08:10:04] I think we need to stop the famous Einstein quote, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. We're not going to get a different result from Donald Trump. This is who he is. This is who he was back in the 1980s here in this city fomenting hatred and division. This is who he is going to be. That does not define the American people.

And I'm a little frustrated that everything keeps coming back to Donald Trump. In the end, this is an American problem. We have to solve it ourselves. As leaders, but as every day Americans, we have to create an atmosphere of civility again. We have to create an atmosphere of mutual respect. Even if we disagree on things politically, we absolutely have to create an atmosphere of respect for the media. You can disagree with the coverage of a story, you can disagree with an outlet, but respect the institution of the media because it protects our democracy. Donald Trump is not going to change. We have to change.

CAMEROTA: Mayor de Blasio, thank you very much for taking time out of your very busy morning. Stay safe.

DE BLASIO: You too.

CAMEROTA: Thank you. We really at least you being on NEW DAY. John?

BERMAN: Great discussion, Alisyn.

Just to update people on the breaking news. A ninth package apparently addressed to former vice president Joe Biden has been recovered, that in Delaware. There is FBI activity on the ground in Delaware at this moment. We're trying to get people there. We're trying to get pictures up to you so we can get the latest from that scene.

In the meantime, when we woke up this morning in lower Manhattan at the Tribeca office of Robert De Niro there was a bomb discovered. That is a picture of the device right there. Miguel Marquez in lower Manhattan right now outside the offices of Robert De Niro. Miguel, tell us what you are seeing.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Authorities say that bomb looks the same as those other packages on the outside, those stamps on it. There is no postmark on it so it appears that there were stamps put on it and it was delivered here, Tribeca film productions. It was in the mailroom of Tribeca Film Productions somebody spotted it there, called police very early this morning. And then the bomb squad came down and already took it off to their place in the Bronx where they will be studying that device.

Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal who run Tribeca Productions released a statement saying the building was evacuated. The building is open. Everybody is safe. This is not what free speech should look like. Obviously, Robert De Niro has been a frequent critic of the president. And so it may not come as a surprise given the other targets of these bombs that it would come to this location.

But interestingly, this happened very, very early this morning, and within a couple of hours NYPD has the bomb, had secured it, had it up in the Bronx to look at it, and was conducting a secondary sweep of the building just to make sure everything is fine. They have given the all clear and it is back to business as normal here in lower Manhattan. Back to you.

BERMAN: Miguel Marquez for us on the scene there in Tribeca outside the office of Robert De Niro. The picture no your screen from earlier, the containment vehicle carrying that bomb to a safe location so it can be investigated.

CAMEROTA: We will have much more on all of the breaking news as soon as NEW DAY takes a very quick break.

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[08:15:00]

BERMAN: All right. The breaking news this morning, what's believed to be a bomb sent to the Tribeca (ph) offices of Robert De Niro in New York City this morning. A device sent to Joe Biden, the former Vice President of the United States, or a suspected device, or a package that is suspicious sent to him overnight.

We're getting new details on that. There is FBI activity in Delaware at this moment. This on top of all of these other bombs sent to people, including former President Obama, a member of Congress Maxine Waters, the Clinton's home, George Soros, here in the CNN Headquarters to former CIA Director John Brennan.

All of that going on and the President make a high profile statement last night about unity, and then making a lot of other statements that are not unifying, including a new one this morning. I want to bring Maggie Haberman, White House Reporter for the New York Times, also a CNN political analyst. Maggie, walk me through the White House response, what the President said out loud, how they think his message is being received.

MAGGIE HABERMAN, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I think you have to remember the degree of which people who work in this White House feel as if they are in some kind of a bunker with him. Even when they don't like what he does, they all increasingly don't like the tone in the media. They don't like how we cover things.

So this is not actually an area where you - as you might think that they were going to be very critical of what he was doing, I think they would've preferred that he had kept to this civil tone that he managed for, I think, about 12 hours last night into this morning. But at the end of the day, most of them - if you had to strap into a polygraph, would say that they think he has a point.

I don't think this is going to be a huge bone of contention for them. I think the question now is how much further this goes for the President? I keep thinking about, you know, right after the September 11th attacks in 2011, I worked in one of the newsrooms that received an anthrax tainted letter.

BERMAN: Set (ph) it up. HABERMAN: It's hard to imagine - right, it's hard to imagine then- President George W. Bush telling the media, you know, this is somewhat your fault that this happened. And it is - it is not surprising that that is what Donald Trump is saying. But it is of a piece with him just trying to barrel past, you know, any criticism and just continue to stick to what he said as if that's the only opinion.

CAMEROTA: You're right because that's what he's done this morning. He's put it out on Twitter that he's frustrated, somehow, with the media, but not ...

HABERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: ... talking about a serial ...

HABERMAN: Right.

CAMEROTA: ... bomber on the loose and a nationwide manhunt right now. He's talking about how the anger in the country is about the media. And he's just missed - whatever. He's just not - not focused on this manhunt. But that's why, Maggie, I'm curious about what happened yesterday.

When we say his very scripted ...

HABERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: ... stilted teleprompter speech. Whose idea was that? I mean, why did the President agree? It was so out of character. And he was very.

HABERMAN: Do you mean the one at the - the one at the rally you mean? Or do you mean ...

CAMEROTA: No.

HABERMAN: ... or do you mean the remarks in the East Room?

CAMEROTA: The remarks at the White House.

HABERMAN: Well, he had to do something. I mean, that's because they were already getting - first of all, a couple of things had happened. It was all of their ideas. This wasn't a - a huge source of agreement. You had a number of pipe bombs showing up in various places, not just a journalist, but two - the - the offices of a former presidential nominee who's married to a former president, and a former president himself.

[08:20:00]

So, this -- he had to say something and they knew he had to say something. And that was never in question.

And, in fact, they had some controversy because and e-mail blast went out from the president's campaign that was really critical of CNN, shortly after CNN had received this bomb threat. That brought the rate apology from the Trump campaign.

They knew he had to say something, so he was not accused of (inaudible) it, but most of his aids knew that it was only going to be a matter of time before he broke free of that.

And we've also seen, over the last four years, he will say one thing to one group and something completely different to the next so he can give that scripted remark in the East Room and seem very official and then appear at his rally and whip up his supporters.

BERMAN: And that was also scripted though -- or part of it was scripted.

HABERMAN: Part of it was.

BERMAN: And I thought it was very political and deliberate and fascinating. Because it took this moment and turned it upside down and the president tried to make himself the victim of these bombs being sent in the mail.

HABERMAN: Well, we have seen the president make himself the victim over and over for the last four years. It's not a surprise.

And to be clear, he has some legitimate complaints about tone in the media. He does have a legitimate point that there has been a lot of anger in this country for the last 10 years, 8 years, 7 years, that is not just him.

But the idea that he has not poured accelerant on it and the idea this as President of the United States, that you don't have different set of obligations than everybody else, is something he has continued not to grasp, or if he does grasp, he doesn't seem to care.

BERMAN: I mean -- I'm sorry. He says, those engaged in the political arena must stop treating political opponents as being morally defective.

HABERMAN: Right. I mean, this is a person who makes up nicknames for everybody he runs -- he has issues with.

He exaggerates whatever they actually did do, whether it's Richard Blumenthal or Elizabeth Warren, this is a person -- now he doesn't do it himself, he allows the crowd to do it and he's always very careful of that, to say lock her up about Hillary Clinton, while at the same time they're talking about due process for Brett Kavanaugh.

We have seen selective outrage from him time and time again and we have seen him sort of put himself in the middle of every story as if it is all really about him. If he actually feels that way, then wouldn't he have an obligation to look at his own role in the current climate in the country?

CAMEROTA: So Maggie, this is why I am somewhat surprised to hear you say, well he had to make this statement from the White House. I don't know that norms -- I think I -- you could be forgiven for thinking that there are no norms in terms of what one has to do anymore. HABERMAN: You could be, but he -- it's not the first time that he has done something like that. You cold be forgiven for thinking that, but it's not as if they couldn't -- first of all, remember, this is a White House that is extremely receptive and a president extremely receptive and responsive to what they are seeing on television and what was on television was a mess.

So, they were essentially responding to that. I don't think -- I think -- I don't think that it's a surprise that they decided they had to do it. In the same way, I don't think it's a surprise that it lasted about half a day.

BERMAN: So Maggie, you've got some very interesting journalism. Some reporting.

HABERMAN: Is that a broad statement?

BERMAN: It is. I mean that in general and ...

HABERMAN: Thank you.

BERMAN: ... and I mean that specifically within the last few hours in "The New York Times." And article that you wrote or one of the co- writers on, which goes into how the president is using an unsecured iPhone to call his friends and the Chinese are listening. That seems like a pretty big deal.

HABERMAN: He's -- look, he's been warned repeatedly, that he Chinese and the Russians are listening when he is on a cell phone. Whether it is the personal iPhone that he continued using until last year and has held onto, primarily, because he had phone numbers listed in it that he couldn't store in the other one, or, whether it's the government one.

All they can do is strip it down as much possible as a government phone, those are not secure, you can still listen in. He was warned that this was a problem and he would often ignore the warning.

He has gotten better about using the secure landline and using the switchboard phones, that is true wand using signal corp (ph) to make calls. But his has been a very long and argues process and the related piece is that, according to our reporting, Chinese officials have used what they are gathering from who he talks to try to influence who they believe are friends of his.

One was Stephen Schwarzman of the Blackstone group and one was Steve Wynn, who is the casino magnet and until recently was the finance chair of the Republican National committee.

You don't necessarily need to listen on those call to know those are two people who you might want to try to influence as they then talk to the president, but it adds another dimension to why this is problematic.

CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh, Maggie, it is jaw dropping, it is jaw dropping in it's hypocrisy. Hillary Clinton's e-mails are calling online too, right now. But here's the ...

HABERMAN: Okay, lock her up. As we'll hear at the next rally.

CAMEROTA: Yes. That's right.

BERMAN: And be eavesdropped on by the Chinese anyway, but that's okay.

CAMEROTA: By the Chinese and they can hear that, but here's what the president says to you this morning.

The so-called experts on Trump, over at "The New York Times" wrote a long and boring article on my cell phone usage that is so incorrect, I do not have time here to correct it.

[08:25:00]

CAMEROTA: I only use government phones, and have only one seldom used government cell phone. Story is so wrong.

(LAUGHTER)

HABERMAN: I really - I really liked your reading out of the so on that one. This is very similar to the state - first of all, he doesn't actually say what is - what is wrong about the story, and the central thrust of the story which is that he was warned repeatedly that there were intelligence ops being launched against his phone use. And that he basically ignored it over and over again, number one.

Number two, the story was not boring. If he wants to he can say all kinds of things about it, but it was not a boring story. And number three, boring is the same word that he used about another not boring story in the New York Times which was the two year in the making deep dive into his financial situation ...

CAMEROTA: His taxes.

HABERMAN: ... over decades. And the fact that his personal narrative, claiming that he was a self-made man with a $1 million loan from his dad was not true. And that his father had actually subsidized his life, certainly through questionable means, for many decades. So I understand that is his reaction. He's perfectly entitled to his reaction, but we stand by our reporting.

BERMAN: I think that's my favorite reaction ever from you. Say what you want about the story, but it's not boring. Maggie Haberman ...

(LAUGHTER)

... I appreciate you being with us.

HABERMAN: Thanks.

BERMAN: Thanks so much.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, bye. All right, we're going to take a very quick break now because there's been so much breaking news this morning and it continues. We will update you on what's happening in Tribeca from Robert De Niro's office, as well as the ongoing story in Delaware with a suspicious package connected to Vice President Biden. We'll be right back.

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